A/N Thank you few for the lovely reveiws and likes and follows and such, makes me all kinds of happy, and wanting to write more. Now go and read more.
"True love's kiss?" Emma asked, a small smile on her face. She let out a small huff of air that could have been a laugh. It wasn't that she found it funny, well, no, she did. It was also that she didn't know how else to react. The very idea of what her and Ruby having being true love.
It was, in the best words, terrifying.
"Yes, of course. It can break any curse." Henry stated in the same tone as before, finally settling back into the booth comfortably, as if his point had been made.
"And what Henry? Am I just supposed to walk up to her and be like, 'so, do you want to remember who you really are. Then kiss me!'" The blonde switched positions with her son and was now turned in the booth looking down at him.
Henry laughed at her question, which had been only half serious.
"Why not?" He asked suddenly, raising that eyebrow again.
"Because, because, that would be weird Henry. She'd probably think I was crazy, or really creepy." The sheriff frowned. Adding the last bit on partially to make him smile.
"Doesn't matter how you do it, right now it's the only way to break the curse." Henry replied, a bit nonchalantly for a ten year-old delivering such an extreme ultimatum.
Emma frowned, the idea of that was unsettling.
"The only way, that you know of." The blonde replied with her own smirk. Tapping the kid on the nose. Just for the heck of it, she really had missed him.
"Whatever, if you want to go trying to find some other way, and not trust me. I was the one that figured this whole thing out. I mean isn't true love's kiss what broke this curse?" Henry argued, watching his biological mother closely before adding in an exaggeratedly exasperated voice.
"Whatever, try what you want. Now can I have a snack? I came here because I was hungry."
Emma laughed at that. Henry usually could pull off cocky rather cutely.
–
Ruby had been pulling doubles for the past week, and she was starting to get the distinct impression it was because Granny didn't want her to leave the diner.
Sure, they had told her about the curse. About how she had lost her memory less than six weeks after regaining it when she crossed the border. Honestly, it felt like the whole town had gone crazy. Well the whole town but her.
But being out in the town she had known so well since she was six and she had been moved here to live with Granny. Her next of kin. Well it made her feel like maybe she was the one that was crazy, since they all seemed to be going along with it.
Ruby didn't remember anything out of the ordinary until the day David and Granny sat her down and explained to her all of the craziness.
The only part that made her believe. No, made her think she could believe, was the fact that there seemed to be a huge gaping hole in her memory. From just less than a year ago until the beginning of the week.
It wasn't like amnesia victims. Well what you see on movies. How you just can't remember a few months, or a day, or a week.
It wasn't that she couldn't remember what she did one day, or that week, but then could the next. The memories she had all her life seemed to have a rather flimsy quality. Almost like someone had picked through and selected the parts of her memory they wanted and only deleted those. Maybe only the happy parts, or only the parts with someone in them. Then left the others leaving them all shifted and pawed on.
That hole made her think that maybe what Granny and David said was true. One other thing did though. The day that Emma walked into the diner.
It was a chore to remember her name, much less the small fact of why she was in Storybrooke.
Trying to remember even a handful of facts. That put the same kind of hard to push through fog over her head that she got when she tried to remember what fit into those holes that almost filled her memory of the past few months.
This new found clue in the mystery of her missing memory made her want to see where it led. After serving the few people who were at the diner at mid-afternoon, and sneaking as many glances the way of her knew mystery as she could without looking conspicuous. Emma wasn't exactly hard to look at either. Ruby decided she deserved a break.
Her break led the brunette to her favorite place to think since she was nine. Well then it had just been a place to hide.
The best thing about it, was that no one else knew about the way these two storefronts met perfectly in the front, but opened up into a perfect little alley way in the back. Well not exactly perfect. It was barely big enough to sit cross legged in, and you had to squeeze past a tree to get to it.
In a town like Storybrooke, where everyone knows everyone, and everyone had been everywhere. The little crack between two stores was a great little secret.
So, squeezing in there only to find that there was someone else there. It was pretty shocking.
"Who're- Emma, how did you- What..." Ruby attempted to voice 'what the hell are you doing here' in a polite manner, that just left her stuttering like an idiot.
"Oh. I'm sorry, am I invading?" Emma asked, pushing herself off the bricks. Attempting to seem just as surprised to find Ruby here as Ruby was her. While she seriously wanted to smack herself as this was one of the biggest duhs she could think of. This was Ruby's place, she had made such a big deal before taking her to it because it was. It was her place, and she hadn't brought anyone else here until Emma.
She obviously didn't remember bringing Emma here.
"No, I just... This place is rather hard to find. I was-" Ruby let out a small nervous laugh, for some reason Emma's presence was making her nervous. "-under the impression that I was the only person who knew about this little crack."
"Sorry I ruined your secret..." Emma offered. Usually she would have a bite of sarcasm on there, or something. But the look on Ruby's face, and the way she was holding herself like she was just so disappointed that her 'secret place' had been spoiled.
"It's okay, secrets don't last long in this town." A smile lifted at the corners of Ruby's lips, and she let her body lean into the wall next to Emma.
Emma couldn't help but smile at that statement. She could think of one that might have set the record.
"Should I go? We can pretend this never happened." Emma asked leaning against the wall opposite Ruby, their feet touched in the process of shifting sides and Emma felt her heart jump.
"No, a little company is nice sometimes." Ruby really just wanted to know why whenever she tried to remember anything about Emma her head got fuzzy.
"Even in your secret place?" Damn, was that a slip, Ruby had specifically called it her secret place when she'd shown her, from the look on her face it was definitely cause for suspicion.
"Even in my secret place." Ruby smiled after the second it seemed to take to recover. She was being paranoid because of the feeling Emma made stir around in her. The brunette gave a little kick of one foot, and it brushed Emma's and she could hear the blonde's breath catch in her chest. "As long as you don't treat me like I'm about five."
"Hmm?" Emma questioned, one eyebrow raised in the face that she had heard caused her and Henry to look very alike.
"Everyone treats me like a little kid because of my memory loss." The waitress explained herself, the last words doubtful, and even accompanied with an eye roll.
"Do you believe them? About the curse?" Emma leaned toward her former girlfriend. The topic coming up felt like a godsend, and her heart was thundering in her ears. She was starved to know what Ruby knew.
"It all seems crazy..." Ruby flexed her hands against the wall of the building supporting her, causing her body to bounce. She wasn't looking Emma in the eye because she didn't know if she wanted to see what was going on in them. She didn't want to see pity, and even if everyone else believed in the curse... She still felt crazy admitting it to them. Not looking her in the eyes made it easier. "But, I think I might. I just can't remember anything."
"I mean, I can't imagine all these things I remember. About growing up here. About this life. I can't imagine them not being real... It's like I have this fog..." Ruby wrung her hands together. She still couldn't look Emma in the eyes. All other facts aside, looking Emma in the eye, and having her look back. Seemingly into her soul. It made her feel funny inside.
"It's because... This'll sound nuts." Emma cupped her hands over her eyes, she wouldn't have believed anyone telling her this a few months ago. She felt a little ridiculous. After all, this right here was the same Ruby she had fallen in love with. Now she was telling to believe in magic.
"No, tell me, it's like everyone's scared to talk to me about it. Granny pretends like nothing's changed... Other people avoid me like the plague. The only socialization I've had lately is with the pharmacist and David." In her eagerness to get the rest of Emma's statement out of her Ruby had moved forward. Just slightly, but in the small space it made them seem a lot closer. Her hand had landed a few inches from Emma's arm to keep herself steady.
The shorter woman felt her gut clench at her once-lover's closeness. A few bits of hair had fallen into Ruby's face. Emma felt the need to push them behind her ear, like she had done so many times before. Hazel eyes were wide, sparkling with exhilaration.
"You're cursed. They told you crossing the boundary erases your memory, but it didn't set you back to like default... You remember me?" Emma finished in a bit of a question. She wanted to know, so badly, what Ruby remembered about her. Could they save what they'd had?
The brunette however looked down at her feet at that statement. "Just barely. You're hard to remember... It's like the more I try the more I forget. It's almost like there's white out or something over more than half my memory, and I don't know how to scrape it off."
Ruby's put out tone made Emma's heart chords ring. Everything about that woman did. The way her whole face shifted into each emotion. She would do anything to get her back. To be able to hold her without having to explain herself.
"I think I might know, how to scrape the white out off... It's kind of insane though." The very thought made Emma tense with anticipation. Her heart had picked up speed, and when she found Ruby's eyes. Excitement seemed to fill her whole body.
"I'll try anything."
It was all the encouragement that Emma needed. She had been yearning for this moment for the better half of two months.
It was now or never she decided, and she'd never know if she didn't try.
She pushed off of the wall behind her with her hands, and the force was enough to close the bit of distance between them. Emma didn't reach for her. Didn't go slow so Ruby could figure out what she was doing. Instead she rushed into it, her lips finding the familiar plane of Ruby's. Her nose bumping the other woman's cheek, and a hand hovering over the brunette's hip.
It was a moment of pure ecstasy. Ruby was like a drug to Emma and she had been withdrawling for a few long weeks.
Her lips were slightly tacky with her bright red lipstick, and as Emma's lips moved against hers Ruby's did so in reply. For one brief fraction of a second.
It didn't last much longer than a second though, because then Emma was back against the hard brick of the wall behind her. Sucking in air because her heart was beating so fast that it was using up way too much oxygen.
It was amazing to her that she was able to deduce by the way Ruby was holding herself and her hands that she had pushed her away.
She didn't think that she would ever get the look on Ruby's face out of her head.
"What the hell!?" The brunette stumbled sideways in the tight space that barely accommodated her shoulders.
She almost fell, and Emma was still recovering from the rather forceful rejection, to do anything about it.
The only thing Emma could think of as Ruby pushed her way out of the hidden alley, was that maybe what they'd had wasn't true love.